AMD updates their wafer supply agreement with Globalfoundries

AMD updates their wafer supply agreement with Globalfoundries

AMD updates their wafer supply agreement with Globalfoundries

AMD has now updated their wafer supply agreement with Globalfoundries, increasing AMD's flexibility when it comes to using other foundries.

This new amendment to AMD's long-standing Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA) with Globalfoundries, covering a period of 5-year from 2016 to 2020 where AMD plans to continue producing a significant amount of their products with Globalfoundries while having more flexibility when it comes to using other foundry partners. AMD will also collaborate with Globalfoundries on their upcoming 7nm manufacturing node, with no 10nm process currently in the works.

For AMD's additional flexibility they will be paying Globalfoundries a total of $100 million in cash over the next year, with penalties if the company fails to make their planned buying targets for silicon wafers.

Our goal is for AMD to have continued access to leading-edge foundry process technologies enabling us to build multiple generations of great products for years to come.

At this time Globalfoundries plans on moving directly from their 14nm FinFET manufacturing node directly to 7nm, with no plans on creating a 10nm node. At this time we do not know when their 7nm manufacturing process will be ready, but AMD may need to consider using a 3rd party foundry for 10nm if Globalfoundries are unable to make their 7nm node in time.

These days the names of processes like these are effectively for marketing, so at this time it is unknown how Globalfoundries 7nm node will compare to 10nm from the likes of Intel, TSMC or Samsung.

With this new agreement, Globalfoundries is set to remain as AMD's leading supplier until 2020, securing the company a lot of business for creating future AMD CPU and GPU products.

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